Forbes has the list and tech is the foundation of the wealth of oly two of the women. I thought there would be more. Here it is:
Women make up 10% of global super-rich and 172 women, 25% more than in 2013, are in renowned club of billionaires.
From the Facebook executive who told women to "lean in" to get ahead at work, to a Nigerian oil tycoon and a British online gambling entrepreneur, a record number of women have entered the global club of billionaires.
A total of 172 women, up 25% on 2013, have made Forbes' 28th annual billionaires' list. Women now make up 10% of the global super-rich.
Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, with a personal fortune worth more than $1bn (£600m), becomes one of the highest-profile new entrants to the Forbes list, joining Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard as the only other female tech billionaire.
According to Forbes, a record number of 42 women broke into the list for the first time, although only 32 female billionaires (1.9% of the total) built their own fortune, rather than inheriting it from a parent or husband.
The world's richest woman is Christy Walton, who shares a $36.7bn chunk of the Walmart fortune, edging out one of L'Oréal's principal shareholders, Liliane Bettencourt.
One of the top UK entrants is Denise Coates, the British online gambling queen who, along with her brother, owns Bet365. Coates was at school when she started working as a cashier in her father's betting shops and has amassed $1.6bn in personal wealth.
Fiercely private, she has escaped almost all press attention in the UK despite Bet365 taking almost £20bn in bets and making £150m in profits in the year to March 2013.
In a rare interview two years ago, Coates told the Guardian how she has, on occasion, had to correct some people who had assumed that her father, a well-known businessman, ran the company. Her business, which employs 2,500 workers, mostly in Stoke-on-Trent, made a £150m profit last year, even after swallowing £31m of losses from Bet365's controlling interest in Stoke City football club
Coates, who owns half the business, received pay and bonuses of £5.4m, as well as her share of £15m in dividends. Even after these payouts the company had a further £430m in cash reserves on the balance sheet. In the past five years, Bet365 has paid out dividends totalling £130m.A total of nine women feature in the top 85.
Jacoline Loewen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacolineloewen
